Lute Olson 1-1-3 Zone Defense

During the 2010-2011 season at the varsity level, we ran mostly man to man defense, but
we occasionally ran some zone defense. And when we did run zone defense,
we ran the 1-1-3 Lute Olson Zone Defense.

Even though we did not run the zone defense often, our defense
was actually better when we ran zone from a statistical standpoint. It
was 0.88 ppp (points per possession) with man to man defense and 0.72 ppp with
zone defense during the season.

I like the Lute Olson zone defense because it provides a different look
that confuses the offense and makes them hesitant.

I'm looking for a 2-3/matchup zone. This has concepts that I may borrow, but my team has been running a (too passive) 2-3 zone ... I don't want to change the alignment, but want to add more aggressive on-ball and/or trapping elements to it (i.e., on the wing pass, the 2/3 can trap the wing, with 1 denying the pass back out top, 5 moving up to deny the high post and 4 sliding over to deny/front the low post). I'm not looking to run a "trap" everytime, but maybe stay relatively passive and then spring a trap once in a while to keep the offense off-balanced. Any thoughts/leads/ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

They are aggressive, but they don't give up lay ups. They trap at the right time, cause turn overs, yet they are smart and don't give up easy shots or lay ups. It's a smart, aggressive, and tough 2-3 defense. With that said, he does not have 1 deny on the reversal when trapped. I think you'll find the way they trap and use high hands, they get turnovers without getting out of position. In my opinion, it's a better way to trap and cause turnovers.

Jeff: thanks! I looked at your link to the DVD this morning (it came in the same email as the 1-1-3 zone), and based on the description (and your recommendation) I will definitely order it. (I have practice tonight - we practice just once/week during the fall - and was at this point just hoping to introduce the concepts. So I''ll try to find something else to drill them with tonight, and will take a look at Coach Marshall''s DVD as soon as I get it). BTW - I have a 7th grade boys and 5th grade girls team (they''re an advanced AAU team ... we were exclusively man2man until this summer when I introduced a zone to deal with foul/short bench situations). Thanks again.

Blake, when the cut was to the ball side inside of the 3-point line, we just had our defender that was already there step in front of the offensive player and deny the pass. If the offensive player bounced out to the 3-point line, we let them go.

For weakside cuts, we just had our team talk and let each other know where the cutter was going. As long as our weakside was aware of where the offense was, it didn't seem to pose any problems.

However, you may have to make adjustments based on what the offense is doing.

I like this zone because I can quickly go from the 2-3 to this one and back in a flash. I also will throw in a trap in the corners as well, instead of having my wing player try to sprint back to their zone, cuz I can see some players getting confused with having to run away from the ball at the middle school level.

hey coach, first time to ask a ?what do you recommend against a 1high (guard)-4 low (across baseline) offense.I have been using a m2m defense but would like to try something different and thought of the 1-1-3.Can I have your opinion.Thanking you in advanceHigh School Varsity

I always felt like the biggest key was to get the ball off the MIDDLE LINE... once you get the ball to one side, your help defense is established. That solves a lot of problems....

Here is something that we did when I was the sophomore coach before moving up as head varsity coach.... again, forcing the ball to one side... one team loved to do this and once we got them off the middle they wanted to take the ball towards one corner - our rules were simple then... if they dribbled towards another player who stayed there, we trapped the ball.... that stopped any continuity that they wanted to do. They stopped running the 1-4 low after we did that.

I never ran the 1-1-3 vs this set so I couldn't tell you IF it would work or not... I used this D vs a team that had 2 good baseline shooters and a good post player with some good results. We stopped the 3 point shooters but had a hard time keeping the ball out of the post because our players were not big... tallest was 6' - so you can see that problem.

When you play the team that uses the 1-4 low, look at what they want to do, or do best with it.... then take that away from them - force them to do something else, make some other player beat you.... like I always said, " Pick your own poison. "

You can run Ameoba in the 1/4 court as well, not always extended. The main difference is trapping the wings & rotation on corner passes. On corner passes, the ball side wing drops to front post instead of running to the backside. The backside defender defends lob & skip instead of rotating to ballside block. I think the Ameoba rotation is better for corner passes. It gets more deflections & steals and ensures you get a defender fronting the post. Just my opinion though.

At the freshmen girls level we taught the 2-3 zone. First time ever I went we any zone as my main defense. After teaching the 2-3 zone I then set them in what we called a 1-1 high and 1-1 low.

On the 1-1 high we placed our fastest defender at the top, she picked up the ball at half court and then pushed the other team's ball handler to the off hand side (usually the left). The second defender was on the three point line. Basically, the 1-1 low was this same set as pictured here..

To simplify we told our girls all the same rules applied for these sets as in the 2-3 zone. It was our 2-3 zone but with these looks. Sometimes the top defender would release the ball-handler once they crossed one side but we wanted them to stay and the other guard take the other zone as in the 2-3.

I was amazed at how many coaches and teams had no idea what we were playing for a defense and how easy it was to change up during a game with limited practice time. I had several coaches ask us "what is that defense called" and I thought it's just a simply 2-3 zone principle with a little change on the guard positioning. Of course I said it's called "Black" which is one of our school colors.